We, the undersigned Ohioans, are writing to request that you oppose shale gas extraction via fracking in all areas of New York, including the Southern tier. Such development would be irresponsible not only for the reasons outlined below, but also due to the lack of infrastructure for proper disposal of fracking waste products within your state.

Because neighboring New Jersey will not accept out of state fracking waste, Ohio becomes a likely target for the disposal of the fluid by-products of fracking. Ohio relies on class II injection wells for disposal of such fluids. In recent years we’ve experienced increasing numbers and magnitudes of earthquakes as a result of this process. A moratorium was issued by our state due to the severity of the issue. Thus, Ohio’s current injection well space is at or over capacity. Should we be expected to receive New York waste, our citizens will be forced to endure many more injection wells in their communities.

We, the undersigned Ohioans join the many other Ohioans opposed to more injection wells in our state. As recently as this month the city of Cincinnati voted unanimously to ban waste injection wells and the NRDC and others submitted comments detailing that the proposed regulations of Ohio injection wells do not meet minimum standards.

We also endorse the following:

1. Letter from eleven national environmental groups collectively representing millions of members nationwide.

2. Coalition letter with more than 22,000 signatories which requests that Governor Cuomo withdraw the Revised Draft SGEIS until 17 documented concerns have been fully resolved.

3. Coalition letter with more than 2,700 signatories that opposes any fracking “Demonstration Project” in the Southern Tier and requests strict enforcement of Executive Order No. 41

As we have seen in the failed attempts of SOPA/PIPA, and the floundering Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, intellectual property (“IP”) laws are often poorly constructed, hastily proposed and ultimately both ineffective and potentially abusive.

Now, the latest threat to free speech in guise of IP reform is a multilateral trade agreement currently being negotiated (in secret) by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”). That agreement—the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or “TPP”—would reportedly include dramatic changes to intellectual property laws, changes that could potentially permit the patenting of plants, animals, and medical procedures.

And, while some of the proposed changes run contrary to enacted federal law, the USTR is not only pushing for TPP, it is doing its best to avoid congressional oversight. For instance, they recently rebuffed a request from the staff director on the Senate Finance Committee's international trade subcommittee to review documents pertaining to the negotiations. Senator Wyden, chairman of the subcommittee, wrote:

"My office is responsible for conducting oversight over the USTR and trade negotiations. To do that, I asked that my staff obtain the proper security credentials to view the information that USTR keeps confidential and secret. This is material that fully describes what the USTR is seeking in the TPP talks on behalf of the American people and on behalf of Congress. More than two months after receiving the proper security credentials, my staff is still barred from viewing the details of the proposals that USTR is advancing."

An Indian auto plant wracked by violence in July reopened last week, with almost all 2,500 full-time and casual workers at the plant barred from entering.

The union and its community allies responded Monday by picketing the chairman of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation when he visited the plant.

Maruti Suzuki India, a subsidiary of the Japanese company, is the largest auto producer in the subcontinent. On July 18 an altercation between a supervisor and a worker at its Manesar plant, southwest of New Delhi, was allowed to escalate.

Union leaders say that a supervisor insulted a Dalit worker (formerly called “untouchables”). When the worker protested, he was suspended. When workers and union reps went to the HR office, managers refused to listen and brought in a firm that specializes in supplying thugs in labor disputes.
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More than 3,300 acres of the Wayne National Forest could go back on an auction block after federal officials decided shale drilling and “fracking” can be allowed within the forest.

Shale wells could be drilled in as many as 13 sites throughout the Wayne forest by 2016, according to an analysis done by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The drilling estimate was included with a report released yesterday that states a 2006 forest-management plan covers the potential environmental impacts of shale drilling, even though at the time it deemed such drilling “not yet economically feasible.”

Forest Service officials canceled a Dec. 7 public auction and agreed to re-examine the management plan after Athens-area leaders and environmental advocates objected to drilling.
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WASHINGTON — Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.

Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.

The American weapons sales total was an “extraordinary increase” over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of United States arms exports. The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas totaled nearly $31 billion.

A worldwide economic decline had suppressed arms sales over recent years. But increasing tensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to purchase American weapons at record levels.
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